Having BS’d my way through many a close-reading paper in my college Shakespeare class, I know that some, not all, but of Shakespeare’s more well know female characters are complete pushovers. (At least in modern terms.)

She loses a handkerchief, Othello gets crazy jealous, and they both end up dead in the end, she being murdered and he by offing himself. Urgh, most frustrating thing to read ever!

Granted, the plays were written in a completely different time, when women were expected to be subservient...but still. I’m sure I’m not the only one who pretends that, instead of being a bump on a log, Desdemona does something, anything, about her situation.

Enter the Sassy Gay Friend web shorts by The Second City Network. The shorts definitely play upon the “WTF?! Why are you doing that? Stop that. Dkflsjdfkjsldkfjweklx,” aspect of the stories by giving the young woman in question a firm slap on the wrist with some common sense that we all can take.